Lack of seating for UW kills Apple Cup deal

The controversial idea of moving the Apple Cup to Qwest Field has been quashed for now, victim of an inability of both sides to come to an agreement on the number of seats that would be allocated to fans of each school in the cross-state college football rivalry.

The University of Washington wanted enough tickets to satisfy its season ticket holders and when WSU officials declined to budge from their desire to split Qwest Field seating on a 50-50 arrangement, it became apparent a deal wasn’t going to work, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.

Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk declined to go into specifics in a conference call with reporters Friday afternoon, but acknowledged that the Cougars pulled out of discussions with Qwest Field operators First and Goal and the UW on Friday morning. He didn’t slam the door on reviving talks, but indicated that wasn’t likely.

“As far as President Floyd and myself, we feel we need to move on,” Sterk said. “Never say never, but we’re moving on and not planning to revisit this in the near future. But I can never say it won’t be revisited again.”

Sterk said he didn’t want to talk about the number of tickets the UW wanted, but did indicate that imbalance was at the root of the decision.

“The whole premise of creating a neutral site and First and Goal’s desire to create a neutral site, that was the attractiveness of the proposal,” Sterk said. “You can build up on that. If it doesn’t have that, it doesn’t have that attraction.”

UW sports information director Richard Kilwien said the Huskies have sold 37,750 season tickets for next season and expect that number to equal last year’s total of 43,500 by the time Washington opens its 2009 schedule.

The Qwest Field proposal called for each school to be allocated 31,000 seats in the 67,000-seat facility, which meant some Washington season ticket holders would be left out.

“The bottom line for Washington is we wanted to seek a solution to accommodate our season ticket holders,” Kilwien said. “The proposal as it stood didn’t do that and we just couldn’t find a model that would satisfy the requirements of both schools.

“We both elected that this wasn’t the time and place to move forward. There’s not much else to it from a Washington perspective, other than we wanted to do right by our fans.”

Kilwien said the ticket allotment was a prominent point of discussion in the negotiations from the start for both sides as the two schools attempted to come up with a solution that could increase revenues at a time when both are facing significant budget cutbacks.

“It just became apparent this wasn’t going to be something that works out now,” said Kilwien. “I will say, if a proposal does come about any time in the future, we’ll consider it. The economy makes our business more and more challenging. We’re here to provide educational opportunities for student-athletes and that’s an expensive proposition.”

Sterk said fan reaction was considered in the process, though he said more supporters will understand why he was looking into increased Apple Cup revenues after May 1 when the school announces significant budget cuts that will affect the entire university.

“I think the reaction goes both ways,” said Sterk. “Most people had the same reaction I had. When initially proposed, it was “No way, I don’t even want to consider that.’ However, as facts became more readily available, people started to understand.

“I think (as far as) fan reaction, obviously we want people to support Cougar athletics and feel good about WSU, so those are always under consideration.”

Sterk said some boosters did contact him to say they’d donate more money to the program if the Apple Cup remained at Martin Stadium every other year.

“Believe me, I have (saved) those e-mails addresses,” he said.

Kilwien said the emotional outcry of fans was definitely heard by all parties, though he also thinks economic realities could cause the issue to be revisited down the road.

“We certainly heard what our fans thought and that does play into big decisions like this,” he said. “Our response to fan reaction was simply that we were trying to come up with a solution that accommodated everyone. From that standpoint, fan reaction certainly does have an impact. But the reality of the economy sometimes makes decisions a lot more difficult than it seems they should be.”